“Job (Cigarettes)” or “La Femme Blonde”
This color lithograph is by the Czech and Art Nouveau artist, Alphonse Mucha. It is most often referred to as “Job (Cigarettes)”, though its original name is “La Femme Blonde”. It was made in 1896 as an advertisement for the Job cigarette rolling paper company. Mucha made two advertising posters for this French company. Both art pieces featured smoke swirling around a woman’s head, whose own hair was long and flowing.
The woman’s hair, wild and swirling through a play on ornate interweaving lines, is a typical Mucha style feature. At the time that this was created, women generally did not smoke in public and usually wore their hair up making this a daring and wild piece. The geometric shape repeated in the background is the company’s logo.
Mucha’s posters for the Job cigarette paper company were so successful that people purchased lithograph copies of them to display as art. In addition to Mucha, the Job company used several artists to create ads for their product including Jane Atché, Jules Chéret, and Georges Meunier, amongst others.
Alphonse Mucha achieved fame in late 1894 and early 1895 after creating a theater poster for a play, Gismonda, featuring the most famous actress in Paris at the time, Sarah Bernhardt. It was so well-received that he worked for Bernhardt to create posters for his performances for an additional six years. His distinct style was copied by many artists. What was initially known as the Mucha Style became the Art Nouveau movement.
For more on Alphonse Mucha, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
